Chords + Lyrics | Brick House
Intro
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 Am7 | Am7 D C :|| x4
Uh! Uh-hu-hu (whistles).
Chorus 1
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 Am7 | Am7 D C :||
Ow, she’s a brick house. She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
She’s a brick house. That lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.
Ow, she’s a brick house. Well put together, everybody knows, this is how the story goes.
Verse 1
||: D/A Am7 D/A Am7 :||
She knows she got everything. That a woman needs to get a man, yeah, yeah.
How can she lose with the stuff she use. Thirty-six, twenty-four, thirty-six oh what a winning hand.
Chorus 2
‘Cause she’s a brick house. She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
She’s a brick house. Ow, that lady stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back.
Ow, she’s a brick house. Yeah, she’s the one, the only one, built like an amazon.
Verse 2
The clothes she wears, her sexy ways. Make a old man wish for younger days, yeah, yeah.
She knows she’s built and knows how to please. Sure enough to knock a strong man to his knees.
Chorus 3
‘Cause she’s a brick house. Yeah, she’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
Hey, brick house. That lady’s stacked and that’s a fact, ain’t holding nothing back. Yeah aw.
Breakdown 1
||: D/A Am N.C :||
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down now.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, down, down.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down now.
Shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it aww!
Chorus 4
Brick house. Yeah, she’s mighty mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out.
Aww brick house. Yeah, she’s the one, the only one, built like an amazon, yeah.
Breakdown 2
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 Am7 | Am7 D C :||
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it, shake it
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now
Shake it down, shake it down, shake it down now, shake it down, shake it down, shake it!
Instrumental
| Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 Am7 | Am7 D C |
| Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 Am7 | Am7 N.C |
Outro
||: Am7 Gmaj7 G#m7b5 | Am7 D C :|| to fade
Ow, a brick house.
Brick House Chords: Exploring the Progressions and Tonality
The chorus progression for Brick House is often written as Am7 – Gmaj7 – G#m7b5, but the last two chords are essentially the same, with only the bass note shifting up a semitone from G to G#. This leads into Am7 – D – C.
If we see the G#m7b5 as part of a chromatic bass movement rather than a separate chord, the entire progression stays within A Dorian. But if you want to emphasise the G#, things start to smell of melodic minor (Dorian with a major 7, not b7).
The verse is even simpler—just D/A – Am7. In funk and R&B, a static min7 chord often signals a Dorian tonality.
Exactly what to play using Brick House chords is so complex you must have TAB, here’s a link: Brick House – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
For improvisation, Brick House provides an excellent loop to “blow over,” as sax players would say, making it a great practice track for exploring the A Dorian scale (with the option of melodic minor).
Personally, I’d blend Dorian, with what I call the Conspirian scale. To fully grasp this, you’ll need to complete my SEPR (practice routine) course, you’ll find this on the members only subdomain.
Here’s a chord chart. It’s main function is to guide you through the structure.
Brick House Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
My chart chart can be had for free, either as a PDF, or in the format I used to write it, iReal Pro.
Brick House TAB | Course Preview
In the course, we use TAB as we start with the bass line and chords, find a simple guitar part, develop it and then finally incorporate horn lines.
As a preview, here’s one of the more complex ideas, can you play it and hear what horn line I adapted for the guitar here from the original recording?
Notice how the chords don’t correspond with the notes played. For example that last C chord, if using the correct chord extensions should be called Cmaj7#11. There was a time when I thought it was a good idea to write that…
One of the 30 Greatest Funk Songs Ever
Released in 1977 as a single from their self-titled fifth studio album, Brick House became one of The Commodores’ signature hits.
By this time, Motown had fully relocated to Los Angeles, having left Detroit behind five years earlier. The song itself was born out of an unplanned break in the studio due to equipment failure. During this downtime, the band’s bass player came up with the initial idea, and guitarist William King later played the demo for his wife, Shirley Hanna-King, who wrote the lyrics—modifying the phrase “built like a brick shithouse.”
Drummer Clyde Orange handled lead vocals for the track, while Lionel Richie’s involvement remains unclear.
Reaching the top five in both the U.S. and the U.K., Brick House cemented its place in funk history. Billboard later ranked it among the 30 greatest funk songs of all time.
Brick House Chords: Continue Learning
Want to master this song? Check out the full TAB lesson here: Brick House (The Commodores) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Alternatively, here are five similar tunes you might enjoy:
